Economic analysis of dairy-crop integration in the Kenya highlands; a case study in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya

Abstract

Dairy-crop integration is a form of mixed farming in which there exist complementarities between dairy and crop enterprises. It occurs where dairy animals serve to add value to crop by-products, to diversify crop rotations and/or help recycle nutrients. Although a number of studies have shown that there are multiple benefits of dairy-crop integration and despite efforts made by agricultural extension officers in Elgeyo-Marakwet County to educate farmers on the practice, many households have not embraced and yet the ecological conditions are favorable. The study characterized integrators and non-integrators in terms of socio economic characteristics. The role socio-economic characteristics on the farmers’ decision to integrate dairy and crop enterprises was put into focus. A partial budget analysis of farms that practice dairy-crop integration was done to determine the net benefits of integration. A sample of 170 farmers was obtained using multistage sampling. The sample comprised of 85 integrators and 85 non integrators of dairy and crop enterprises. Both descriptive statistics and binary logit were used. The study found that integrators have a low mean in years of schooling and bigger size of land compared to non-integrators. Among the significant socio-economic characteristics that influenced the decision to integrate include gender, household size and awareness of the benefits of dairy-crop integration. Partial budget analysis shows that integration is a superior technology as opposed to non-integration of dairy and crop enterprises.